#sb20 – A steady 10-14knts north-easterly greeted the SB20 fleet for the second DBSC Thursday of the season writes Michael O'Connor. Full results here.
Despite the fact that we were missing Thursday regulars Justin Burke and his Alert Packaging team, another three boats did make it out to the start line this Thursday making eight starters in total this week... not bad for a Thursday so early in the season and great that the numbers continue to build!
We were delighted to welcome Probably (Billy, Ian and Mark) back to the fold and both Bad (Enda, Gerry et al) and Smoke on the Water (Bob, Louise et al) decided to continue on where they left off last Sunday. Also back on the scene was our former Class Captain and class supremo Doug sailing Manamana with Ronan and Breffni - definitely a combo to watch this year!
Back to the race... A heavy pin end bias surprisingly caught out a few of the fleet and it was Venuesworld (Ger, Chris and Rory) that nailed it with Manamana in close pursuit on their shoulder. A pretty one sided beat meant that most of the fleet flipped onto port straight away after the start and drag raced it out to the right hand side of the course. Should Be... (Michael, Owen and Gary) managed to get there first just ahead of Venuesworld, Bad and Manamana and after a couple of quick tacks near the mark sneaked around the mark ahead of the chasing pack. A long run towards Sandycove saw the fleet spread out as everyone tried to get their own bit of breeze and several boats including SacreBleu (Richard, Ben et al) and Seriously Bonkers (Peter, Dave and Michael) made a charge up the fleet to get back into the mix. Venuesworld was less lucky as they had gybed out early towards the right hand side of the run but the breeze died on them and allowed the rest of the fleet to gain. When the fleet converged again, Should Be... led from Manamana, Sacre Bleu and Bad.
The boats continued to tussle around the course with place changes a very regular occurrence - a great feature of the new Thursday courses is that fetches are (practically) no more and with (usually) proper beats and runs, processions appear to be a thing of the past! In the end, Should Be... took the gun followed by Venuesworld in second (who managed to storm back up the fleet after their first run 'mare) just ahead of Bad in third. Great crew work on Venuesworld allowed them to do a tidier drop and sneak inside Bad on the last short beat to the finish. The prodigal sons, Probably, were in fourth (which was not too shabby for their first day back, trying to remember where everything goes!) and Seriously Bonkers were in fifth, followed closely by SacreBleu and Smoke on the Water. Unfortunately for Manamana, their start was just a little too good and they were OCS'd.
